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Comment: Indiana Jones is no bad thing for science

By Cornelius Holtorf

FEW scientific disciplines have a hero as charismatic as Indiana Jones. The whip-wielding character is the most widely recognised image of an archaeologist and largely due to this, the field enjoys huge and untainted popularity. Yet many archaeologists still seem desperate to distance themselves from the phenomenon. Since the height of the last Indy fever in the 1980s I have given up counting the number of exhibitions, educational events and publications that shout&colon; “The real archaeologist practically never works like Indiana Jones.”